Books I've added to my library recently:

Ibsen, Henrik. Four Major Plays
Cawley, A.C. (ed.) Everyman and Medieval Miracle Plays
Willey, Basil. The Seventeenth Century Background
Albee, Ernest. A History of English Utilitarianism
O'Neill, Eugene. The Later Plays of Eugene O'Neill
Smith, Henry Nash. Virgin Land: the American West as symbol and myth
Marlow, Christopher. The Tragedy of Doctor Faustus
Bunyan, John. The Pilgrim's Progress

Latest theological reading:

John Calvin, Institutes 3.19 "Christian liberty"
Institutes 4.13 "Vows"

Martin Luther, "Introduction to Romans"
Treatise on Christian Liberty

Futility

Psalm 78 has a terrible warning. Speaking of the Hebrews in the desert of Zin, it says,

32 In spite of all this, they kept on sinning;
in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.

33 So he ended their days in futility
and their years in .

Futile days pass when no great purpose commands them. The years they constitute are terrifying when they are ended and nothing left but God's wrath. Save me from them. Remove the back-brace of unbelief.

Genesis 16 - Hagar

Since returning from Journey to the Heart in early April, I have had a project. The project is to scrawl out the "book of the Law" (Genesis through Deuteronomy) in composition notebooks. Today's chapter was Genesis 16, about Sarai's maidservant Hagar, whom she gave to Abram to produce a child, since God had closed up Sarai's womb.

1 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, "The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her."

Abram was the man who believed God's promise of a son from his own body, so that God credited his faith as righteousness, in chapter 15. He, at age 85, went along with the idea.

Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.

Hagar got 'uppity' around Sarai, because even though her was to build a family though her son, Sarai herself would be the last of her line, supplanted by Hagar.

When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her . 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, "You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me."

6 "Your servant is in your hands," Abram said. "Do with her whatever you think best." Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.

So Hagar fled. I don't know what Sarai wanted (except a child), but she is ruining one thing after another.

7 The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. 8 And he said, "Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?"
"I'm running away from my Sarai," she answered.

9 Then the angel of the LORD told her, "Go back to your and submit to her." 10 The angel added, "I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count."

One question has been rolling around in my brain like a rock since dinner-time: Why did God have pity on Hagar?

You might say God was showing his kindness and faithfulness to Abram's descendants (Ishmael). But it shows me that God is not a petty tribal deity in the book of Genesis. He takes note of the helpless everywhere, and -- reveals himself. Does he always? I don't know, because I only have my own experience and what's recorded in the Bible. God must somehow show his glorious attributes in everything he does, and the helpless should know that he is their shield.

He was a shield for Hagar, even though she was an Egyptian slave woman. He was a shield for Job, who lived in the land of Uz. He was worshiped by Melchizedek, king of Salem, and by Abimelech king of the Philistines at Gerar. There was nothing even special about Abram: he came from the land of the Chaldeans (Babylonians).

So does God still love the Arabs (Ishmaelites)? Yes, God still loves the Arabs.


Question 2: Why did the angel tell Hagar to go back to Sarai?

Bringing her back under authority, even a cross old lady, was part of God's mercy.


Here's the rest of the angel's message.

11 The angel of the LORD also said to her:
"You are now with child
and you will have a son.
You shall name him Ishmael, ^[a]
for the LORD has heard of your misery.

12 He will be a wild donkey of a man;
his hand will be against everyone
and everyone's hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
toward ^[b] all his brothers."

I don't get what's so desirable about being a wild donkey. Maybe it ensures that, like Esau, you won't stay under anyone's domination. (By the way, Ishmael means 'God hears'.)

I like the next part especially.

13 She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: "You are the God who sees me," for she said, "I have now seen ^[c] the One who sees me." 14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi ^[d] ; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.

P.S.

15 So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.